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Re: Have you ever felt the need to create a new word? (take II)

Subject: Re: Have you ever felt the need to create a new word? (take II)
From: Peter Neilson <neilson -at- alltel -dot- net>
To: TECHWR-L <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
Date: Mon, 24 Apr 2006 10:43:44 -0400

Bad usage exists within organizations where it is a
slang that has developed for some purpose. It's
only when the slang meets an unsuspecting customer
that there's a problem. The customer service lady
at the government agency said to me, "Whas-soash?"
Took me a while to get her to speak in a way that
I could understand.

(Scroll down for explanation.)

Geoff Hart wrote:

Surag R wondered: <<In one of my projects, there was a term "statused" in the UI. I told the project manager that there is no term like statused. He said, the software product has a history of around 15 years and no user had complained about it till now and let us continue using it.>>

That's a really tough call. Once something has established a 15-year track record, it's awfully hard to change it, and doing so risks causing a surprising amount of disruption. Microsoft, for example, just about


<<There are a lot of wrong grammatical usages and misspellings around us through advertisements and other channels. Can this type of software UI errors too be accepted like that? Or shall we classify it as the invention of a new word according to convenience?>>

English has always changed in ways that word geeks like us don't like,


down


down


down more...


The answer...

She was saying, "What is your Social Security Number?" Apparently
the SSN is called a "soash" by the people who deal with it all
the time. Cheezus.
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References:
Have you ever felt the need to create a new word?: From: Kathy Bowman
Have you ever felt the need to create a new word?: From: Geoff Hart
Re: Have you ever felt the need to create a new word?: From: Surag R
Have you ever felt the need to create a new word? (take II): From: Geoff Hart

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